COMMENTARY

COMMENTARY

Our resistance to the corrosion of democracy and freedom must now move from frenzied outrage to strategic action. It’s time to think beyond marches, beyond symbolic acts of opposition (as important as these moments of defiance are and will continue to be over the coming months and years).

Last week the U.S. Senate dealt the President a temporary surprise setback on a central piece of his trade agenda, refusing to allow Fast Track trade authority to move to a vote. The Senate showdown was just a preview of the epic battle brewing in the House.

At first glance, Libya’s massive oil dependence looks like the country’s biggest weakness. Conflict and corruption spawned by oil recently brought down one government and currently threaten to tear the country apart.

Let’s face it: Democracy is struggling. Sure, it surged after the fall of the Berlin Wall, reaching a high-water mark in the first years of the 21st century with various inspirational "colored" revolutions.

As the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) draws near, debates about the contours of a new post-2015 development agenda that will best meet the needs of the world’s poor are accelerating.

Recent weeks have seen simmering property rights conflicts around the world: Burmese citizens marching in protest against the government’s seizure of their lands for a hotel zone; Vietnamese villagers contesting the confiscation of their land for an EcoPark satellite city project; and violent clashes breaking out in Panama City over a controversial law allowing the sale of state-owned land in the port city of Colón—Latin America’s largest duty-free zone.

In an article in this month’s Africa in Fact, Joshua Greenstein and I proposed measures that could help direct Africa’s natural resource wealth into investments for development—instead of into the pockets of corrupt officials.

A new consensus has emerged in recent years that good institutions—especially the fair and predictable rule of law, and accountable governments that effectively serve their citizens—are prerequisites for sustainable and inclusive growth.

Over the past decade a new conventional wisdom has emerged that security and development are mutually reinforcing, and that long-term security is not possible without reducing poverty and promoting economic development.

Editor’s Note: Terra Lawson-Remer is a Fellow at The Council on Foreign Relations and Assistant Professor at The New School University. She was formerly Senior Advisor for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The “super committee’s” apparent failure to cut a deal to trim $1.2 trillion in federal spending over the next decade is set to trigger blanket budget cuts, including $500 billion from the Pentagon’s budget.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters have been widely criticized for “not having demands”, as if the lack of a clearly articulated policy platform undermines the legitimacy of those crying foul at a system that seems rigged – politically and economically – in favor of the well-connect and wealthy few.

G20 finance ministers are gathering in Mexico City this weekend to prepare for the fourth G20 Leaders’ Summit since the Group of 20 declared itself the premier forum for international economic cooperation at its 2009 Pittsburgh summit.

On November 3rd occupiers amassed in an Oakland “general strike,” shutting down the entire port of Oakland for several hours. Over 3,000 people have been arrested in association with the Occupy protests since they began in New York on September 17th.

One hot set of proposals at the Copenhagen climate change negotiations this week would transfer billions from developed to developing countries, by allowing rich country polluters to buy carbon offsets generated through forest conservation in poor countries — creating a financial incentive to keep forests standing instead of razing them for cattle ranches, palm oil plantations, or slash-and-burn subsistence farming.

Recently Somali pirates surfaced as an imminent threat to the safety of cargo ships and seafarers. The U.S. government took firm measures in response: last month Navy Seals daringly rescued Captain Richard Phillips from a bobbing lifeboat in the Indian Ocean, shooting his captors while he stood a few feet away with his hands tied and an AK-47 at his back.

At the G20 meeting last month the international community pledged 1.1 trillion to combat the global economic crisis, but the intended beneficiaries of economic development initiatives have a better idea: they’re buying mobile phones.

During your debate with Senator Biden you said you welcomed the opportunity to speak directly with the American people, “uncensored” by the media. That sounds great. In fact, I’d like to challenge you to a debate: one regular American, me, versus you, the Governor of Alaska.